With six people up here on the farm having a Beltain isn't a big ordeal. We'd love to do a Maypole dance with all the fanfare and all but there just aren't enough able-bodied dancers.

So, we made do.

We had fun decorating fairy houses and we walked the boundary of our property, renewing the wards and reinstalling the guardians at our gates.

The children had not been with us when we first did this ceremony. So it was new and exciting for them. We re-decorated the guardian posts with paint and feathers, added new trinkets, and anointed them in a ceremony, meant to open their eyes and re-invite the guardians to inhabit these totems.

Then we processed from the fire circle down the hill stopping at each gate, installing the guardians and reciting our warding ceremony along the boundaries.

​We'd warned our neighbors that we had a holy day that day that would involve work with our boundary markers and that they may want to move any spooky livestock or aggressive animals just for the afternoon because our children would be with us.

Luckily we have wonderful neighbors who are totally okay with our practices and more than willing to comply. One even came up to visit during the ceremony, with advance permission.

After the ceremony, we returned home, and had a wonderful feast full of early spring foods and yummy bread.

We performed the annual ritual of "Spring Cleaning," which was less well received by the children, and we all had a good evening of rest with the windows open to the cool spring air.